18 GEOLOGY, 



granite itself, is a series of the hottest springs in the Prov- 

 inces. I have visited four of five in a line of fifty or sixty 

 miles, and found them uniformly of a saline character, 

 Around one nearly east of Tavoy, the stones are covered 

 tvith an efflorescence resembling ep^som or glauber salt. 

 Mr. Bennett found the Thermometer in this spring, to rise 

 to 144°. Major McLeod visited one of the series at 

 Palouk, and writes : " There are two spots where the 

 springs show themselves. One immediately in the right 

 bank of the river, and another two or three minutes walk 

 to the northeast inland. — There must be 30 or 40 bubbling 

 up along a line of about 50 feet by 20. — The hottest was 

 196° another 194°. No disagreeable smell or taste." 



The hottest springs are at Pai, ten or fifteen miles 

 north of those visited by Major McLeod, and according 

 to Phillips they are hotter than any on record out of vol- 

 canic regions, with the questionable exception of three 

 springs in China, which, " probably exceeded the tem- 

 perature of the air from 70 to 120 degrees." The prin- 

 cipal spring at Pai, — for there are several, is in a little 

 sandy basin in the midst of granite rocks on the margin 

 of a cold-water stream, where it bubbles up from three or 

 four vents, and on immersing the thermometer into one, 

 the mercury rises to 198°, within fourteen degrees of 

 boiling water. Its location is rather peculiar, not being 

 in a valley like the others 1 have seen, bust on the side of 

 a hill more than a thousand feet above the level of the 

 sea, and surrounded by large masses of coarse grained 

 granite rocks, which seem to have been detached from 

 the summit above. 



